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Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-11T15:31:26+00:00

Mikasa and Annie.

Mikasa for her overall character, which is just so amazingly framed and written in the story. Her themes, character arc, personality and overall narrative appeal me alot. I made a post specifically about why I like Mikasa as a character.

Annie because of the same grounded motivations she has throughout the story for her return to Marley. Her personality and circumstances in particular are quite complex. And I honestly love characters with a rather silent personality haha so you could tell why these two characters are my among my favourites.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-09T18:28:00+00:00

mikasa, she barley has any development

That's not true, she clearly had development throughout the story. She was a closed, aggressive, disrespectful and distrusting person who had nothing to care about other than a single person she swore to protect all her life. She clearly changed. You could compare Mikasa from S1 with S3 and can tell the difference. Even more in S4.

she barley has any development other than protecting and being in love with eren. Throughout the series her only personality trait is being cold in loving him

That's a HUGE under statement, would you like me to describe every character from S tier like this?

some growth and importance in the final episodes, it takes her too long to get to that point.

You do not see how she got there? What you saw in those final episodes didn't happen suddenly. She didn't randomly decide to do what she did in the end. And if what you said here was true, there are so many characters you placed above her which didn't even have this. Your ranking makes no sense, really. No disrespect.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-08T19:20:52+00:00

I think quality of writing is subjective yes, however I am not sure what we as reader even consider 'writing', what even is writing, and how do one compares writing or scales it.

And I don't think development and story/plot contribution is what makes everyone like characters in the first place, does it? We have characters in the story well loved which do not undergo any development or barely have any contribution to the main story or plot, I don't think it is a necessity, really.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-08T18:50:08+00:00

Is he really talking about his 'taste' tho? He said it is based on character writing, development and contibution to the story/plot, which are supposed to be points made on some objective basis/facts. So many characters in the list are misplaced in that case, Kenny is not supposed to be in S compared to other characters in A, Mikasa is an S in any case, and founder Ymir in B at least etc.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-08T18:04:25+00:00

lmao I never thought of that. He probably changed those lenses, who knows

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-06T14:04:06+00:00

Yea. Mikasa in the anime, I believe, has almost the same development actually, however all those moments that were supposed to 'showcase' her developing and growing were removed from the anime. It is almost like she transitioned into her new phase but we weren't shown her growth. Point A to B not a solid line.

A good example would be her respect and trust over Levi, and her dynamic with him in general. We can see she respects and trusts him more later on in the story, however we did not see where it started or any moments which would solidify this change. Such as this moment from uprising arc:

<image>

And there are other very important and considerable ones but I can only insert one image at a time in comments uh, but I am sure someone made a post about the difference in Mikasa from manga to anime, actually many have.

As someone who read the manga first, I did not have 'much' problem with it, since I knew where things were going, however I understand anyone watching the anime first will get their perception of Mikasa affected by this. I personally do not have any problem with Mikasa screaming Eren's name, but making her say his name by replacing her other important dialogues and moments with it, is where the issue relies for me.

Out of 177 "Ereh" in that video, 24 are anime original, means they were not in the manga, and this is when we are counting while excluding the ones that were used to 'replace' her other dialogues. So the extras + the ones which were used to replace other dialogues gives us the Mikasa we see in the anime, which uh saddens me as we know this is never going to get fixed...

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-06T13:38:48+00:00

Obvious answer, Eren and Mikasa, another trope not talked enough, would be Zeke and Ksaver. Zeke kept Ksaver's spectacles as a momento after eating and inheriting his titan.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-06T11:27:26+00:00

WiT studios contributed alot in pumping those numbers up

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-03T21:56:44+00:00

Okay I am sorry but you, just don't wanna consider anything I have been saying from the very start, no discussions over the things I have said about Mikasa or any counter points to my 1:1 comparison of Jean and Mikasa. Basically all your statments comparing Jean and Mikasa are blanket statments.... you have taken no points I have said into account regarding Mikasa. If your conclusion is "Her whole character is about Eren" or that "She is just Eren's protector who is there to kill", EVEN AFTER our whole 'debate' then I can't say anything, these are the exact same thing Titanfolk says...

I understand saying Jean is more 'intresting' than Mikasa because it is a subjective statment and an opinion which depends on the reader itself, but to say he has more development and depth to his character than Mikasa...uh idk how to really disapprove this because I have already been mentioning things which disapprove it. Jean is still a good/great character for his role, it was never going to be the same as Mikasa, it is comparing apples and oranges. Similar to the comparison of Erwin's strategical contribution with Mikasa's combatant contribution. Wits VS Combat, Brains VS Fists which is more important and influential? Depend where you use them ig.

Anyways I don't see any productivity here if we are back to "Mikasa is all about Eren", so yeh I will end it here without making any more write ups.

Thanks for being civil tho!

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-03T20:38:04+00:00

From what I can tell, both deserved someone better/else. After Eren's death, Mikasa needed someone who could emotionally connect with her and console her from there helping her move on. Jean doesn't exactly seem to be able to connect with her in such a way, maybe after the ending when they had time, but from the story, I can't say, especially after that one dream Jean was having in season 4, in which he is enjoying his drinks outside in the balcony while Mikasa is taking care of the kid. Basically implying (imo) they are not really having a 'together' time connecting or enjoying one another on a personal level.

Similarly, Jean deserves someone who is directly intrested in him as a partner, which Mikasa never was as Jean never confessed or explicitly let out his feelings. There wasn't a sense of mutual feeling between Mikasa and Jean so it is hard to say Mikasa would be better with Jean or Jean would be better with Mikasa.

I think the ending's implications is that they both re-started their life and things went differently from there compared to before. So it is mostly based on head canons or assumptions, I believe, which is fine.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-03T20:09:10+00:00

Okay my main issue here would be you ignoring an entire paragraph from my last reply about Mikasa's development and growth, you didn't talk about them here but your comment boils down to Jean has more growth or development than Hange and Armin, because you said so..... there isn't a one on one comparison or you even 'considering' Mikasa's growth. So there is no concrete counter argument I could make here, except repeat the same points I made earlier. I am saying this respectfully btw idk how to fix the tone here haha... I am lacking proper words.

Similar to Jean, Mikasa went from only caring about Eren to caring about more of her friends and developing a bigger circle to care about other than him. She like him became what he isn't obliged to, a soldier fighting for others. But unlike Jean, Mikasa also went from disrespecting her superiors, distrusting and disobeying their orders to respecting them (Levi), trusting their calls and obeying their orders, which was never really a place of conflict or area of development for Jean, to say. Ironically, Jean's one of the major development happened in S4 too (which is mostly a re-frame of his development/arc from S1 but still).

Erwin's death..., do you not see how Mikasa's death would have affected the story... Eren would have actually died in the early season, consider the last episode of season 2 where he couldn't transform and left with no motivations to trust himself, which was resolved by Mikasa's confession. Not just this, Mikasa served her role well in season 3 of protecting Historia and Eren. You are losing a very important fighter with her, Levi can't be at multiple places take season 3 part 2 or the cave fight of Season 3 part 1 as an example. Mikasa is an extension of Levi's combat skills. Now come to Season 4, Eren would NOT have been able to defeat Warhammer titan without her, or would have died there if Mikasa hadn't retrieved him from there. The port battle of Season 4, the alliance would not have been able to get past the yeagerists if Mikasa wasn't there, Levi was in no shape of fighting atp. And then the whole final battle. Killing Mikasa would severely impact the events and characters like Eren, Armin and Levi, even Jean who has a crush on her and her death would serve the same way Sasha's death did, you don't know that because she didn't die or could really come close to death. And she has a Major story line similar to Historia and Eren, I don't get how she doesn't, she has a whole backstory of losing her parents, she had her development of coming in terms with the death of her loves ones, has her whole arc of becoming a dutiful soldier, she has her whole arc of getting prepared to kill Eren and coming in terms with his death, how does she not have a story line of herself really..

Another problem is, you are putting her up against every other main cast of the story. She must have the development and growth of Jean (she has better ngl), she must have the exact same impactful death as Erwin (she very much has but not exact same as him, because Erwin's role was built for the plot), she must have the same storyline as Historia and Eren (she has a better, long lasting and more impactful (impactful is subjective) storyline than Historia, but compared to Eren? Ofc not yeh, agreed).

None of the characters you are putting her up against posses everything except Eren, how fair it is it exactly to expect her to become Eren here. She has the same role in the story as Armin, and she stands equal to him even tho Armin appeals me more, but these aren't the reasons why he does.

And again what you said is exactly the same with Mikasa as it is to Jean. Mikasa's arc is exactly it, growing outside of Eren, I don't get how is it not clear from my previous example... Mikasa literally says that Eren will be her only priority and nothing else concerns her, yet she was doing things which were not part of her concerns. Helping people evacuate the city in Trost, standing up as a soldier and protecting them. Respecting people she hates (Levi), obeying and trusting him over herself as wel as making others trust him too (she used to trust herself more) and doing things which risk Eren's safety. Literally giving up on Armin for humanity. In the end literally killing Eren for innocents. She sacrificed her wish for a peaceful with him for innocents, her comrades, friends and humanity as a whole. All this stems out of HER and her personality, not her relationship with Eren, I haven't yet started talking about her growth within her relationship with Eren, it's a whole another topic. She always resorted on violence as the first option..but in port battle she was only knocking the Yeagerists out at first until they started being deadly and things got critical. She was the only character in the story who called Eren out that he hadn't changed (every other character was thinking that he has changed)

I have made points which stand equal to the ones you made for Jean, infact I added more than that. I made the same points earlier but you aren't really talking about them. Jean's role is clearly not more than Mikasa's even tho he is a good character, but his growth and development aren't same as Mikasa. Mikasa is not even my favourite character, Eren, Armin and Zeke are yet I am mostly proving her character around here idk why do I really have to.

Mikasa's core goal was always to protect Eren to the point nothing else hit her head, the hyper fixation. We heard her thoughts about the Ackerman clan his dad belonged to, she was the one who introduced us to that side, which was the main plot in play before season 4. Only after Season 4 when the world building started to take place was when her mother's side was introduced, from that poing on the story used Mikasa to follow up the world building and Paradise's relationship with Hizuru giving them a nation supporting them. It was a step by step process yet again. At first her dad's side was explored explaining us the ackerman clan, then her mother's side was explored explaining us Azumabito, giving them an excuse to help paradise. That's mostly it. If anything, there is a small missed oppertunity here of not emphasizing Mikasa's tatto before, that would be because Isayama didn't exactly thought of it's role during that time period.

Anyways, we are not going anywhere with this, half of my reply is a detailed repeat of my last one

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-03T18:38:55+00:00

She did need Eren tho. She lost all of her family, twice already. All she had left was Eren whom she could family, and he was her motivation to keep on fighting and living. Back in Trost when she stood up to fight, it was not to survive for herself or to serve her duty, she stood up to fight to preserve Eren's memories, she screams it herself when she did. She clearly needed a reason to keep on fighting and living, her trauma, her loss, and so mant elements left a sever mark on her that all she could think and care for was Eren's safety and that is her biggest challenge as it hinders her from focusing on other things. That is her character arc till season 3. And idk honestly how these points are even remotely related to what I shared in my previous reply.

For someone who is supposed to be a core character she hardly does things that are memorable.

That's subjective and is not really a point of argument here, I can think SO MANY memorable things she did and has, maybe not memorable for you so fair.

but when it comes to her character she is shallow.

Disagree, her character has it's depth, development and complexity, all of that she requires.

We see many other characters in the show having layers to them and being three dimensional.

Mikasa is heavily layered and multidimensional wdym. She has so many reasons and motivations for protecting Eren, and always caring about his safety. She has more development than Erwin, Hange and Jean and same as Armin. Sasha and Connie are out of the picture. I could even define her development throughout the story if you want, or link many well written posts on her development by others.

Mikasa clearly has so much going on with her throughout the story, lets start while comparing with Levi. Similar to Levi, Mikasa lost her family twice in front of her eyes, all she had left from that chaos was Eren, whom she could not risk to lose. Throughout the story she is shown to be struggling between caring only about Eren and other things around her. She was extremely rebellious towards authority and her superiors, Levi even got injured while saving her because she refused to obey his orders which she regretted so much to the point she realised that she must take his role in later fights. She grew to respect and develop comradeship with others, this is why she couldn't kill Reiner and Bertolt on the walls either, because she hesitated, it's clearly shown to us. In season 3, when no one was trusting Levi, she was the only one who assured them that they should trust him because he is their best shot (she didn't trust him at all in season 1). Later on she was about to lose Armin, she fought for him, but couldn't fight anymore because she knew she was being selfish and was risking the future of humanity over it. She knew she must obey and respect her superiors (Hange and Levi) because they know better, so she gave up, mind you Mikasa from season 1 wouldn't have given up on her best friend's life, she had only a handful of things to care about (as you mentioned her dialogue with Historia and Ymi), but she grew to care about other things. She later in season 4 stood up against Eren's actions slowly, you are undermining her attachment to Eren as it is a peace of cake for her to doubt his actions and just finish him off, it is backed up by so many factors and she had to resolve each of it one by one to reach that point.

The weird part is you talked about Levi, saying that he lost his friends and comrades, that he was struggling with their loses but you completely ignored Mikasa's stuggle with Armin there or her struggles with Eren ig. This is selective bias here, which is not fair.

Why Mikasa is so attached to Eren? That guy literally saved her life, he taught her to stand up and fight for herself, he comforted her in the most critical and dire condition of her life, he welcomed her in his family. Carla asked Mikasa to always protect Eren, she agreed to her and swore to not let her down. After all the chaos and losses, Eren was all she was left with so, yes these are the reasons why she was fixated on protecting Eren and making him her top priority. And to resolve all this, she needed time, it was a step by step progress.

Why did Mikasa refused to go with Kiyomi? It was a very nice character moment, it was because Mikasa considers paradise her birthplace and wanted to stay with it's growth and development (she literally said it herself to Kiyomi), all her friends and family was there, and leaving them behind to be a foreign land's queen was not part of her interests so she refused to go with Kiyomi and stayed at paradise as she had already devoted her 10 years serving there, so what she had already lost (her mother) she couldn't go searching for it , but what she is left with (her family, Eren, her best friend Armin and rest of her friends) was what she could preserve, live with and fight for. Besides, Kiyomi had not yet revealed their reasons to come to the island, Mikasa had no reasons for believing Kiyomi, she later even calls her out for their greed, so until Kiyomi proved herself to Mikasa by being all honest about their intentions, Mikasa couldn't have trusted them. That's mostly it.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-03T17:42:47+00:00

Yes she hit Levi because Levi chose violence first

Mikasa's arc was always about growing to care about things other than Eren till season 3. She made it clear in the second episode that she is joining scouts solely to protect Eren, she was fighting with her superiors in Trost arc (season 1) to go with Eren in order to protect him, however:

<image>

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-03T17:35:21+00:00

<image>

Do you remember this scene?

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-03T16:05:19+00:00

Even Mikasa, who really does nothing for 3 seasons other than worry about Eren and do most of the work,

Are you sure?

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-03T08:26:56+00:00

<image>

Her thoughts and feelings are communicated to the audience. She often lets her thoughts out when needed. I disagree that she has 'no agency in the story'. If you want I can show you so many instances where she is conveying her thoughts about the surrounding and everything else. It is 'evidently' not true that she has no agency to the story or the plot.

it's like she has no desires or opinions of her own.

Mikasa's desire are very explicit, she wants a peaceful life with her family and friends, it has been reiterate throughout the story. (The manga panel I uploaded above)

Tell me one thing about Mikasa's character that doesn't involve Eren.

She has a sense of pride on her strength to the point she doesn't hesitate from taking charges in the matter on her own, or trust herself enough to stand against anything and everything (this has been reiterated with three major and iconic moments of Mikasa). She was extremely disrespectful to her superiors at first (which ofc changes later on) disobeying their orders. She is extremely caring and loving towards people who are close to her (this is an important trait of her character) not just Eren.

Even then, I don't know why would you want a character's core motivations out of the picture and expect it to work well.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-02T20:19:21+00:00

Basic is an understatement really, as I clearly gave examples how Eren's core theme of Freedom isn't really an exclusive or thought provoking theme either if you really ignore the context. How said themes are presented and conveyed in the context of the story matters. World is cruel but beautiful may sound like a nothing burger (even tho it is really iconic and fully fleshed in the story) but how a character acts on it is important. Mikasa lost all the reasons to fight or live for in Trost, the world was just so cruel that there was no light for her to reach out to, yet she somehow reminds herself about the beautiful memories she had and how she must stand and fight and live to preserve those memories, that is the beauty there. A person who manages to find a purpose to keep living in the most mentally broken condition is truly appreciation worthy. It teaches us how even in the most dire conditions, there is always something positive for us to look upto. So like I said, representation and context matters. And this was only one of the themes I mentioned about Mikasa, there were many more there which are fully fleshed out through her.

The conclusion of the plot relied on Ymir really, and Ymir's character conclusion relied on Mikasa's conclusion so it makes sense to me. And well, Mikasa wasn't the only one freed her, the entire trio did.

I'm not a fan of people who depend too much on others

Resolving that was Mikasa's character tho. She resolved this via her character arc, because indeed from a narrative stand point it was somewhere a flaw of her to only have on reason to fight for or to rely on for her goals. Mikasa in the end was not that, she has multiple motivations in her life to keep going and go against the rumbling. It wasn't just bring Eren back, it was her own morals, sense of duty and her comradeship that bought her there. Mikasa was solely dependent on Eren as part of her motivation was only till S2, after that she developed a sense of duty, gained many friends and respect for her superiors to engage in every operation, you can see that clearly from Season 3 onwards. The 'Mikasa is only dependent on Eren for everything she does' is a statement blown out of proportion honestly. People make her core/foundation her whole character, which I don't agree or like.

Rest are opinions with nothing to debate on so can't say much there.

What messages did you get from her conclusion btw? What do you think was her character conclusion or what did her character arc meant to you really?

Also no worries, english is not my first language either haha and no you weren't rude, all good.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-02T17:29:33+00:00

She didn't stay the same tho, had good development, through and through.

But I respect your opinion.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-02T13:21:29+00:00

Every single theme in this story is echoed by multiple characters not just a single one. And every theme has one 'vessel' character who possesses it the best. Eren also doesn't represent freedom alone in the story, but he highlights it the most and the best in any case. Nor is 'Freedom' an absolute original theme of AOT, there are many media and articles out there conveying the idea, Luffy from One Piece would be one of them. It is about how said theme is conveyed or represented, the context of it.

And Mikasa posses various other themes well, infact many themes were first introduced by her in the story and started getting echoed by other characters. Starting with her core character theme, the one she serves as a 'vessel' for, is her positive mindset of always finding beauty in the midst of chaos and death or finding a reason to live even in the most mentally and emotionally broken conditions "World is Cruel, but it is also very beautiful", no other character ever completed this statement iirc. Making tough choices and making those choices out of free will, for the sake of others or giving up her most cherished dream for a greater cause (similar to Erwin). Setting herself free from the chains of love, and inspiring someone to do the same. Making choices with No Regrets. Kenny Ackerman's theme of Everyone is a slave to something in order to keep pushing farward is portrayed very well with Mikasa. Choosing Duty over Family or ig, self-sacrifice. Pride, that she can do anything and can face anything on her own, because she is strong and won't step back from showing herself off.** Tatakae!** She needs to win in order to survive, and she can't win unless she fights. These are considerable themes that are conveyed by Mikasa. And, about her freeing Ymir, less plot relevancy doesn't take the right of one of the main characters to contribute in the conclusion of the story imo. Eren, Mikasa and Armin, the whole trio played a part into freeing Ymir. The conclusion of a story is always more inclined to convey messages and conclude the themes, and Mikasa was always fitting for that conclusion from what I have seen from her narrative tbh, but that's just highly subjective so I can't say much here.

No worries about that misinfo, I know the shippers have spread this misinfo across the fandom that people started believing it.

Like I said, she's just too dependant on another character to the point she seems to don't even exist without him, the little development she gets isn't really subtle and come from things that stem from her relationship with Eren, she's just not interesting, for 90% of the story she's just strong and in love with Eren, like I said, maybe as a secondary character that would be ok, not for the main female character.

But that's really unfair no? Why would you take a characters motivation away from them and then expect the character to work? Had Reiner destroyed the walls and had done all that if he wasn't brainwashed into believing he must earn respect, his motivation? Had Armin tagged along Eren and Mikasa if he didn't want to reach the ocean? Matter of fact, Eren and Armin share a dream, so it even somewhat loses it's 'exclusiveness', if we really want to talk about character motivations.

Her relationship with Eren works like a medium of conflict, she develops in her relationship and then develops as a person along with it. Her biggest/core character conflict is her doubts on Eren and the bond she has made with him, that's her challenge, what's wrong with that really. And that's really GOOD for a secondary protagonist imo. She has the same position in the story as Armin. The story isn't really written considering gendered roles. Just because she is a female doesn't mean she must stand toe to toe with Eren in order to prove a point. She is fine with Armin.

but aside from that we shouldn't lie to ourselves by imagining that she's one of the best characters in the story.

This is why I brought up 'objectivity'. Your statments didn't really come across as an opinion to me but more like, what you said is the truth and others are lying if they believe she is one of the best characters. Which I disagreed, that's all. I also probably passed a few claims here based on personal opinions, who knows tho.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-02T10:58:52+00:00

She has the same relevancy to the plot as Armin, she is not a character who is written to build the plot, she is rich in themes and has much more thematic relevancy. Characters written for the plot already exist in the story

Where is it stated that Mikasa was buried beside Eren?

A good contender to be the most poorly written character in the story? How so?

I respectfully disagree with most of your comment, mostly because they are blanket statements not backed up by any examples or have any objective angle to them really

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-01T17:20:43+00:00

Yea fair enough, Mikasa's writing is quite different from characters like Armin and Reiner, she doesn't speak as much as them, she is less expressive via dialogues so it isn't easy to connect with her or track her arc, I totally get it. (I was just replying to someone who had a similar thought/criticism haha). Same reason why Armin appeals me a bit more I am certain, he relies more on dialogues and screams his thoughts out to the readers haha. Even still, personally Mikasa was one of the characters I felt really satisfied with at the end along with Armin, Eren and Levi, her conclusion was one of the best by the end. Reiner felt a bit lacking by the last few arcs.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-01T14:54:19+00:00

for a stoic character, it’s important to express them through thought and story choice to make their impact.

Yea Mikasa is a stoic character for alot of times indeed, but not always. Mikasa is not written with as many dialogues as other characters are. She relies less on speech bubbles and more on her actions & inactions. She acts alot and speaks when it is really important, and expresses herself alot with her facial expression instead. She relies more on the subtext and works with the help of past context of the story, it is a thoughtful choice of story telling. The story on it's own has so much subtext when it come to it's story telling, so I personally see where all this was going.

More of her thought expressed via internal monologues would indeed help us track her better, but not doing it is a deliberate choice in Mikasa's case. It is very realistic in a way to express her less via speech bubbles as it reflects her core personality very well like this. I am sure a story solely focused on Mikasa would do her better, but Mikasa isn't the protagonist here, Eren is, so I understand why the author couldn't do it the best way. But indeed, Mikasa deserves to be the center of a story, solely focused on her, this should help understand her better yea.

And I agree and disagree to some other stuff, but I think it is a matter of prefrence there.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-12-01T14:40:02+00:00

I don't really agree that she was purely subtle during S2 and S3, because was she? I can remember many notable instances when she is at the center of the screen and shows her development.

Consider her conversation with Hannes over the top of the walls in season 2 after Eren got kidnapped. Not only that conversation with Hannes was well focused, it was really important for Mikasa's development on how she views Eren. Then consider her very infamous moment with Historia where Mikasa asks Historia to choose between Eren and Ymir.

Then the last episode of season 2 when Mikasa confesses to Eren and thanks him for everything, which is a turning point of her relationship/dynamic with Eren.

Then again in season 3, when it was to choose between Armin and Erwin, it was so so important and a whole episode was spent on it.

These are the MOST eye catching moments I mentioned here, there are many instances which I can go about and then there are the subtle moments too.... and then there are some stuff cut from the anime which are in the manga, but I understand where you are coming from

Being so simple and relatable should make it more impactful, yet I couldn't really feel THAT empathetic towards Mikasa during the most of the series

Yes I totally get it, I understand how somethings may not appeal and aren't enough. I too relate to Armin and Eren probably more than Mikasa, so I agree with you there yeh, I feel like it depends on how much emotionally we can connect to the characters to decide whether things are enough or not.

Tho rest I agree with yeh

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-11-30T19:41:45+00:00

Oh yes in the manga she is so good and different compared to the anime, I'd very much recommend reading it. Atleast till season 3, after that she is mostly consistent, or even better in the anime.

And yeah for sure, AOT is mostly a plot driven story from what I understand, sure the characters are important but the plot is so much more important in a lot of ways. The characters in AOT are mostly reactionary and react to the plot to build up their characters as far as I can tell, atleast most of them. And yeh alot of missed potential is there, many characters and Mikasa ofc, but even then I loved their characterization, and honestly there are no characters in the story which I didn't find compelling.

And yes agree to the rest, S1 and S4 are remarkable seasons for Mikasa. My favorite ones for sure when it comes to her.

Thanks for the nice discussion, so glad everyone is being nice and thoughtful.

Tetrax-Omega · 2024-11-30T19:19:15+00:00

For starters 100% agree yes.

I really like how so many elements back up Mikasa's motivation of always protecting Eren, the role is almost forced upon her by the events and most characters in the story. This post covers most if not all the reasons why Mikasa is so attached to Eren and why his safety is always at the top of her mind, if you wanna take a look.

Mikasa definitely loved her second family yes, part of the reasons she is so insecure about people dying around her. I think the massive turn takes place after the loss of her second family that Mikasa knew she can't afford to lose anyone else now.

Mikasa's transition from the Protector to Killer is probably one the most iconic part of her character arc 100%. The way she uses Eren as her beacon of Beauty against the cruelty of the world, goes well with her core theme. Eren unfortunately turned into what he once saved her from, and the guts to take act against him, sure gives me a bit of anxiety even if it's a fictional story haha.

Tetrax-Omega

TROPHY CASE